kronos vs kairos time

The Nature of Time, Post-2012

kairos time

A moment in the life of my driveway, after the rain. Photo by DK.

As I’ve mentioned on a couple occasions, we are experiencing time differently in the post-2012 era. A key catalyst behind my choice to stop writing and recording monthly horoscopes was the realization that most people would continue to read them as prophetic or oracular.

In an interview in The Mountain Astrologer, Laurence Hillman (astrologer, son of James) noted that the ancient Greeks had two different words for time: kronos (Saturnian time or what we might now call ‘clock time’) and kairos, which is the experience of the quality of the moment. Astrology, Hillman said, is a way of tuning into the quality of the moment that allows us to discern which archetypes want our attention now.

As our experience of time becomes more kairotic and less kronological, we are beginning to realize that everything can change at any moment, to the extent we are able to truly believe that to be the case. When we read a horoscope to find out what is going to happen in the future, we’re operating (perhaps unconsciously) from a kronos mindset. If we then give our internal agreement to any limitations (another good Saturn word) expressed in the horoscope, we are essentially limiting what can happen.

This doesn’t invalidate all astrological predictions and it doesn’t mean you need to give up reading your horoscope. But our evolving relationship with time does seem to translate into astrology being now more useful when either employed in the present moment or viewed in retrospect. Looking back at what we’ve just experienced in light of the current astrology empowers us to understand how we’ve been handling the archetypes involved so we can make concrete changes in our thinking and behavior.

This shift in how we perceive time is also fundamentally connected with an epic shift in our collective narrative. Rather than seeing ourselves as separate beings in relationship with the gods, we are beginning to realize that the gods are inside us. In the words of William Blake:

“Gods are visions of the eternal attributes, or divine names.
They ought to be the servants, and not the masters of man…
Cooperating in the bliss of Man, obeying his Will.
Servants to the infinite & Eternal of the Human Form.”

Paradigm Shift

I believe we’re on the threshold of a huge paradigm shift, one that has been thousands of years in the making. We could trace the collective spiritual evolution of humanity up to now (using very rough dates and leaving out lots of subplots) as:

–> We know ourselves to be powerless in the face of God. The gods exist outside of us and control our Fate. (Taurean – Piscean Ages; 4,000 BCE to late Middle Ages)

–> We believe God may actually love us. We are still virtually powerless compared to God/the gods and they still exist outside of us but we can relate to them as co-creators of our reality. (Late Middle Ages to Renaissance)

–> We believe we may be One with God and start to question if we are responsible for creating everything we see around us in “Reality”. (mid-1800s – late 20th century; Victorian Age in England and American Transcendentalism in USA up through the discovery of Chiron and the New Age movement)

–> We know that everything that exists is God, including we ourselves. The gods, therefore, exist within us. We are responsible for all of Reality and we can change reality simply by the quality of our attention to what the gods inside of us need in order to be happy and productive. (2012 – ??)

It would be quite useful to reflect this week on your level of inner authority. Because the Mars-Saturn opposition has been triggering our authority issues. Whatever has felt restrictive, oppressive, or confining; or has left you feeling hopeless or resentful or at the mercy of forces beyond your control in the past few weeks can now be seen as a catalyst inspiring you to take ownership of your own narrative.


Own it.

Transformational life coaching

Openings:
https://directory.bookedin.com/words-for-the-people

3 thoughts on “kronos vs kairos time

  1. Jessica Radcliffe says:

    I was in the room when Chiron came to Earth. I was asleep dreaming about a new tiny planet which was making a strong high whooshing sound. I listened to the strong sound, witnessed the new planet ,then woke up. Later the next day I saw a little post in the paper”New planet! Chiron! etc”…1977? ish

  2. DK Brainard says:

    Yep, Nov 1 1977, 9:56 am Pasadena CA. According to Zane Stein, the first astrologer to track Chiron seriously. Interestingly, that night the Moon and Jupiter were conjunct your natal Uranus in the 9th House (!) and the North Nodes was conjunct (< 1 degree) your Saturn and the South Node conjunct your Jupiter...I'll send you the biwheel. xoxo

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